


Kaydel's Return

by LostInQueue



Series: Rey’s Mechanics [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Ben Solo POV, F/F, F/M, Fights, Gen, Halucinations, Kaydel POV, Modern AU, More tags to be added, Mythology - Freeform, Returning Home, Rey POV, Rose is a mother, Rose pov, Sexual Content, Smut, a/b/o dynamics, alpha-omega mutation, becoming a civilian, drug references, references to human trafficking, taking on a new life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-19 22:46:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17610470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostInQueue/pseuds/LostInQueue
Summary: Nearly a year has gone by since Connix left the hospital in retaliation for Snoke's trespasses. The task hasn't been easy; more time consuming than anything else... but necessary. Absolutely necessary.Upon finishing her task, it catapults her into having to manage becoming a civilian and what it means to her to be home.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I want to thank KathKnight for beta'ing this for me. Make sure you check out her story: Higher Ground. It is well worth the read.

[](https://ibb.co/9w8mY33)

Three hundred and fifty-four days have passed since Connix told Rose she’d be gone for a couple days. Each setting sun gave way to another scribbled mark in her makeshift notebook that she kept hidden in the neck of her boot.

Being out on the land this whole time has darkened her skin, well past golden, matching the darker stones in the desert. Her hair has since lightened but lost its silkiness. Dirt in her scalp has crusted over, matting the hair into one deadlock she keeps tied together in a bun. Connix has done her best to live off the land as she did when she was a child, ditching the bike she rode off on, and everything else she claimed to be hers. To her, they were threats. Anyone that found them would surely find her family. And that would not do.

She sacrificed meals, unless she could cook the creature during the day under hot stones that baked under the desert’s sun. This meant her daily protein intake was far less than normal, feeding on bugs, snakes and the occasional hare. Water was just as scarce. Many times, she found herself chewing on the flesh of a succulent plant, just to keep her tongue from drying out.

As the year passes, she processes time by how the sun rises and the moon sets. If she has to guess, she is coming up on the end of the summer, which meant SNK’s shipping routes will become more bearable. Connix will soon be able to stalk a lead she acquired months ago, which will be surfacing at any time now.

Trucking in the summer proved to be a problem. Even in the air conditioning of the cab, the summer sun was capable of grounding air travel, which meant all routes would happen at night until late September. This very fact gave Connix the cover required to take down every license plate on every tractor trailer that visited Snoke’s warehouse. Connix felt she always worked better under pressure, especially with little or no resources. She could remember multiple license plates at a glance. It was a gift, really. It was how she could remember the fine print on every document ever handed to her. Photographic memory was what her superiors called it. They said it was a gift and that she should embrace the skill.

During a handful of times through the year, she caved, going into town, to use their power. Having ditched her phone in the beginning, she opted to use an old computer at the library, look up the very information she acquired.

Connix ran each of the plates looking for information on their driver. Most had criminal records, while only a few did not. Of the ones that did not, several were family men that only took up the job for the routes and flexible hours and family leave. Others had been driving cross country and exploiting the overtime; minor cases that didn’t necessitate further attention. As for those with criminal records, she was sure she’d be doing the free world a favor by eliminating them if they happened to cross paths.

In the time she allowed herself at the library, Connix studied each of their faces. It was important to her not to take down a family man. She figured the loss of a good mate would be too significant for a family to suffer through. 

The trucking schedules were usually sporadic due to what they were carrying, which made her question even that. SNK shipped items, similar to a moving company. Meaning, they didn’t need to house anything, unless it the drivers needed to change to complete the shipment But even that didn’t add up. A warehouse isn’t necessary for such a change. Maybe a ledge the height of a loading dock was though, just to reset the trailer to the new cab. Connix’s brow furrows at the thought. Why would Snoke need a warehouse if they’re moving individual clients’ goods from their locations? It did seem odd.

She considers the options of the building being a centralized hub for truckers to sleep, but even that seems strange. Most truckers slept in their cab. That’s what the cab is for, she thinks.

Tapping her finger on the mousepad, which is a tell-tale quirk she has when she was thinking, has her processing just that.

What is in his warehouse?

____

 

Three days later, a new set of license plates in a convoy drives up to the large L shaped warehouse. Obviously, it is Snoke himself. Not even the CEO has an escort like that, which only triggers more questions. Why does he need that much protection for a transport company? They literally only moved items from other facilities, she reminded herself. She watches as the group rides directly into the building through one of the loading docks. The door lowers immediately after the last one crosses the threshold. 

No vehicle ever enters the building like that, let alone three. Connix nods at herself as if she’s speaking to another person. 

As night falls, Connix is on the move, no longer needing time to map out her surroundings or come up with a plan. The time for that has passed. Her job is clear. Get in, kill Snoke and anyone in her way minus the exceptional few that deserved their lives. 

She makes it across the land stealthily. Each footstep is quiet but more deliberate than the last. Nevada’s barren landscape makes it hard to hide. The new moon shrouds her in darkness well enough to stand in it, unthreatened, like the creatures of the night. 

As she forwards herself towards the building, she set out an EMP, disabling all of the cameras and locks on secured doorways for only moments at a time. Her clothing tonight matches the drivers, trying to blend in. Her shirt is ratty and dirty from months of compiling stains. Connix acquired an oversized vest from a truck stop earlier in the year, well before she knew she’d be doing this now. Her jeans are ripped and baggy from rarely washing them. And her timberland, steel-toed boots have seen better days, but they are still intact, and that’s all she really needs them to be. The items she wears make her feel like she has complete control of everything...

...That is, until she slips inside. 

What she finds is terrifying. Cells of malnourished children: girls, boys and babies, just like Rey described years ago. This was it. This was where Rey was sold. It had to be. This place is why she had so many nightmares. It is plain to see. Connix hears babies crying but can’t find them. Does she want to? The terror of being stolen begins to send tremors of fear-laced rage through her body. As she searches the premises, she does her best to put it all out of her mind. Connix has told herself over and over again that she will be back to save them. But right now, she needs to kill everyone else. It is time to rectify this, one death at a time.

The air smells like dried blood and pubescent children, their presentation musks and body odor. Normally it would make her sick, but the only thing in her mind is her next move. Each forceful blow reverberates through her muscles, springing her into the next series of strikes. After killing the fourth “trucker,” Connix is armed in no time, again, making her way right in to see the bastard at the helm. 

Snoke himself. 

Connix has seen the man in pictures before, but something about seeing him in person makes her squirm. He was old, like the document suggested, and wants to chalk it up to just that, but there is something about him that strikes her. Whatever it is, she will be fine with finding out in the aftermath.

She isn’t kind in her assessment, but it is of no matter to Connix. He will die the quick, painless death, she promises herself. Torture isn’t her thing. It won’t change the events of what happened. He won’t apologize or make amends. And Connix is damn sure she won’t let him enjoy the rest of his years in a federal prison cell. He is a man of great power, and men like that have money—enough to make the attack on Rey or abducting the sea of people she finds within those walls seem like it is just one big misunderstanding.  
Snoke will die for his trespasses.

And that’s just what he does.

That cocky bastard laughs at her when she pushes in to his room. It is a den, odd to have in his building, but she isn’t interested in why it was designed as such, or its contents; she is there for his final judgment.

His icy blue eyes hold a challenge, expecting mercy to buy him time, but there she has none. He shudders a breath of a plea when Connix raises her semi-automatic level with his head. She wastes no time pulling the trigger, lodging the silvers into his skull. Her promise is playing in the back of her mind from the last night at Phaux’s. One bullet after the next splits his head in two, splattering his blood unceremoniously over him and his black leather armchair, before he falls to the floor.

Connix’s hold on her gun stays level and precise. The weapon’s usual recoil doesn’t seem to be a problem at all for her. Not today. These rounds make a difference. They’ve met their mark. His blood, now combining with the smell of whisky, half of a Cuban cigar, and thick leather musk, is enough to make her want to vomit. 

Bodily fluids, though, mean a trail. As she stands, she resolves there will be none. Not hers at least. No one will find her, not unless someone can pick up her scent. But she has none; she is only a Beta.On the way back out she finds keys, releasing all that are chained, and calls the police with an anonymous tip that gives her only minutes to evacuate herself from the building. The images of scared, used children are burned through her mind. It is almost too much to bare. Staying is not an option.

It’s time to find he family—

Connix tells herself that therapy and time would be the only way to blur this... but they’ll never be forgotten. The thought of Rey there, or in a truck like she mentioned, being the last sale of the day, always boils her blood. Actually seeing it, being there, was a major blow. Where Con thought she’d have the power to make more right, she does not feel as though she did.

Several days of travel has kept her recycling the images of that not too distant memory. Connix does her best to keep her mind level. A sign of weakness means mandatory reconditioning that could last for years, even if she’s never back in the field. PTSD is no joke and taken very seriously in the First Order’s Academy. Anyone released from service is replaced back into civilization as a whole person. Mentally and physically capable. They would show no signs of being in the program at all; clean, as if they never served in the first place.

Returning to headquarters is daunting. A sleek, armored car wouldn’t show up like in the movies or glorified agency shows. Agents of the First Order would gain their mission details by way of coded encryption. Sometimes it wouldn’t be as easy as showing up on an electronic device, even though that has been used in the past. Connix remembers the first time she was called upon, having to piece together clues about it that included several observations indicating that she was firstly, not the only agent in the field, and secondly, proved her to be as sharp as she is skilled.

Connix smirks at the thought while riding on the back of the truck she and a few others are hitchhiking on. She is heading back south from Hazen, where she stayed overnight.

By the time she makes it back to civilization, Connix walks the remainder of the way to the gate that will take her to headquarters. Being an agent means she is not above them. As high as she ranks, it does not mean Connix will be seen as a successor. As she arrives at the site, she presses two fingers hard into where her mating gland would be to signal her pick up.

A rough, metallic chip placed just under her skin set out her coordinates. The high frequency sound is deafening being so close to her ear. However, she has to be within range of the facility to be picked up. Connix knows this, but her own terror wins that night. She presses it over and over again until there is a return blip of a sound, that sounds mostly like a chirping radio call.

Masked men arrive from her division who still cover her head with black sacks, one after another to be sure she cannot see them, or the location of the base at all. It is done to ensure the traitors, whistle blowers, and politicians that are suspected to be controlling the military sanctions, remain unable to control this operation with false claims. Outsiders never really understand why alternate measures have to be considered but it has to be done for the sake of freedom.

Security.

When she arrives back at headquarters, on an undisclosed floor, in a bare room containing a chair, desk, and her uniform hanging on the door behind her, she wonders what this was all about. It looks like she is being prepped for an interrogation. Albeit, she did act alone. The mission was never a mission, which would welcome the interrogation as it was, but this seems like something else.

As she takes a seat, the door opens behind her. Connix know not to curse even though she finds that annoying and stands instead. She knows not to turn and face the individual, so she does not move until it is requested of her. 

It isn’t.

“Thank you for your services, I must,” Connix hears an older man say behind her. “Surprised, I am to see you, though.” The man takes no time to move across the room to the other side of her table. He avoids the light, purposely sitting in the darkness that hangs over his features like a thin sheet.

The man pulls out a small, silver ribbed kit, roughly the size of a pill box, and slides it over to her in lieu of completing her last mission. Her superior, only known by his deeply pressed wrinkles, large ears and kindly aged, green oval eyes, speaks softly. His accent, mixed with his strange speech patterns, make the moment more real. 

“Thanking you for your services, this is.” The short man takes pity on her blank stare. She has been a soldier for far too long to remember what she’d given up.

Her name. Her life. Her biology. 

All for the system.

It was to keep her safe, they assured her. Connix blinks, finding the courage to ignore this conversation, and decides to dismiss the pain that pressed her on into this lifestyle.

Sensing this, the man tries her again, this time taking her hand, reassuring her as he does, that she’d had the option to handle the change on her own if she’d wanted to. But he needs her to remember to keep those she trusts closest. Changing would ultimately bring on a world she’s never known.

“In the case, all you need to know, this is,” he says. “Leave yet, do not. See yourself out wearing your uniform, you will,” he continues, pointing to it where it hangs. “Removed by suction, the chip will be.” He waves in a large Beta to handle the process.

The man is tall and stern looking, scowling, undoubtedly because he has been selected to do this. The two look at each other and then at her, suggesting she bathe after the piece is removed. She looks as though she has slept at the dump for a year. She is aware of this. Her skin shows rough patches, and peels from the constant sunburn; dirt just seems to cake on, too, but that doesn’t seem to bother them so much as the presentation stink that seems to cling to her.

Betas. Should. Not. Smell.

And she does.

Connix nervously waits for the item to be removed. It didn’t seem so scary when it was inserted, but the thought of it flying out under several layers of skin made her queasy. That, of all things, really shouldn’t, especially given the injuries and deaths she’d given that same day...but when it comes to her body, it shakes her deeply. 

Clattering tools, and a large, thick hand at her shoulder has her doing everything in her power not to end the man. Instead, she hears him try to command her. 

“Relax,” he says, lining up the canister to her flesh. “On three,” he says, only counting to one; he pulls the trigger, starting the suction for its quick release. Then, before she can react, he lifts her under her arm to get to the showers down the hall. 

This is the first time she seens the inside of the building since her surgery. It is almost as if they planned it this way.

Showering isn’t as glorious as she imagined it would be. The stall is approximately the size of a typical bathroom stall. The water isn’t as hot as she’d like but she is given an entire bottle of shampoo and conditioner to take care of that rat’s nest she calls hair. She’s also given a brush, a razor, scissors and a bar of soap. Assuming the razor is for her hair, she casually flips off the Beta behind the door.

Hours. It takes hours to get a comb finally through her hair, but she does it! Afterward, Connix styles it, wrapping it in a low bun to leave ample space for her uniforms’ cap.

When she finally exits the bathroom, she finds the Beta still standing at the doorway. She salutes him before turning on her heel to evacuate the premises. It’s the first time she’s allowed to leave without the covers.

Even with the news and the tiny item in her palm, Connix’s posture never falters. Her body stays square, sure of herself, as she passes each station, saluting as she passes. Leaving the final door, hitting the heat of high noon out in the desert is surprisingly welcome. Air conditioning to Connix is uncomfortable, and she is only ever willing to sit in it during small moments. One of the few acceptable times is usually after relations with her mate in their home.

It is only then, when her mind mentions his name that she remembers the last thing she said to him. It plays out terribly, now that she can finally see what she’d done: 

Connix starts to choke out a swear, promising she’s going to kill for her. Poe tries comforting her but she shakes him off. “Phasma, lets go,” she snarls.

“Go where?” Poe exclaims. “YOU’RE not going anywhere!”

Connix pulls her pistol. “Watch me.” She walks past him when he grabs her by her arm. She rips her arm away from him, promising a far more painful response if he needs to challenge her again. Poe watches her go, feeling helpless. Rose tosses her keys to Connix as she leaves.

“Take care of her, Rose. I’m counting on you.”

Her feet hit each stair heavily as she approaches the vehicle waiting to take her home. The clacks of her heels no longer purr as if she is just a model showing off some garment. She is tired. Surprisingly. Actually, there have been very few times, from her adolescence all the way to this very moment, that she ever wanted to sleep, or been tired enough to try.

Connix’s mind shifts from Poe, back—so far back into her childhood, that damned bus she made a home out of, those stupid bugs, meeting Rose, so far past it to her idiotic brother, staying with her aunt, and before then, the bullshit with her mother. It is almost like a lure has hooked her, pulling her far enough back to reassess her choices. 

Stupid Beta mind, she curses herself. Betas have an uncanny way about them to overanalyze every awful detail, like they think they are part Omega. Betas, Connix shakes her head. What a damned biological fuck up. Connix presses in the handle to the back seat, silently nodding to the driver when she is seated and ready for him to move.  
She’s surprised not to see another soul with her in the back seat. She lets her mind wander over, first, the interior, not specifically being anything interesting to remember. ‘Rey could do better,’ she thinks, smirking to herself. 

Her eyes warm and cool all at once. It has been the first time she spoken her name since her abduction. Blinking back tears she doesn’t want to cry, she remembers her panic. How she just snapped. How she could tell it was time. She remembers how her body moved involuntarily, hunting, so unlike a Beta. She had to wonder what that even was about.

As her driver pulls away from the building. He breaks her concentration, alerting her that it will be an hour to the strip and looking like it would be a two hour flight from there. 

“Thank you,” she replies, nodding to him and then turns her head to look out the window as they leave the tall, window lined, otherwise greyed structure in the distance. While on the road, it seems to shield itself from view behind other nondescript buildings. For a moment, she wonders if they’re designed like that for that reason, to hide such a place in plain sight. It’s actually the first time she’s considered this, but it honestly doesn’t matter anymore. 

Driving further into the horizon, the building finally makes the place sparkle in the sunlight like a forgotten stat before it completely disappears from view. This, she thinks, this is just the beginning.

———

 

Thundering blades overhead are welcomed as they whip the fresh air through the body of the black hawk the pilot suggested they use. This was for show. She was let go. The First Order would see to this as being all that they owed her, instilling in her that this is over. Connix is free.

Nevada has never looked more beautiful to her than flying in that lovely machine. Connix has always loved the wrenching feeling the hammering blades press into her as they tour the skies, looking for someone or something. It is pride pumping through her at every turn, she thought, the feeling is heady and she revels in it. Connix closes her eyes while she lets it pound through her. Someone always needed to restart a conversation, which reopened them, staring her frustrations into the sky. 

Most of their questions were those she, herself, was not ready to face. 

Most circling around Poe.

_____

Reuniting with him. If he is even still there. It is almost as if it was her superior’s mission to push her through a plan, but there isn’t one. The final mission happened, and she saw this through, even if he left her. Honestly, how could she blame him if he did. She pointed the gun at him after all. What ‘mate’ does that? God... she did it to an Alpha. Not just any Alpha, her Alpha. Poe. The one that would give into her every need at a moment’s notice. The one that accepted her when she’d been rejected so many times being a wild little Beta. 

Connix prayed to every deity she can think of, asking her superiors if they have a god they believe in, and if they could teach her how to pray to them for this. Poe creeps back into her mind as a constant figure as they cross every peak and valley. Every rock formation, every degree hotter it gets, has her praying to every living thing, in her mind, of course, to help her find him.

It didn’t seem like she prayed or connected enough with the spirits of the land, air, and sea, as the woman sitting next to her suggested, from her Druidic Holy Light book from which she happened to take verses. All at once, it didn’t matter anymore. They hovered in one place, in the high heat of the day, making it look like Rey’s Mechanic’s sign and building was a mirage. Her heart flutters as they bopped once and then twice, settling with finality down on the ground. 

She unclipped the buckle of her harness, as everyone else did. Next off were her headphones. She hung them carefully on the hook next to her seat, thumbing them as she let go of this life, now exiting into her future. 

As Connix stepped down out of the chopper, she hears their pilot thank her for her service. Then the three riding with her stand in a line, in front of her, saluting and wishing her all the best. It’s so unlike anything she’s experienced that she finds herself stifling a sob. Only a stern nod is given, though. She turns, bending forward to handle the pull of the blades that still churned the air above her. It’s as if they still assured her that they’d be there, watching over her, though her return would no longer be necessary. 

Connix now has to get along with being a civilian now. No more crazy car chases, assassin cases, or traveling. There would be no more studying marks, training sessions, or fighting. No reason for disguises, jumping out of planes or arming explosives. Which also meant coping with the possibility of changing her name back to Kaydel. 

It isn’t something she was ready for. Right now, it is the long walk of possibility? Loss? Hope? She doesn’t know. But each step brought her closer, clicking her heels proudly, like the professional she is.

This is her time. 

It is time to find the girls, and whoever that is left. It is time to check in and never out.

It is just time. 

——

Reuniting with Poe makes her weak. Her voice sounds in whispers, where she could have sworn they are shrieks of joy. Connix, who has all of the answers all of the time, has none. It is all she can do not to start crying when his eyes lock on hers at first. Then he runs to her. After all the time she put between them. Her Alpha runs to her side. 

Her family piles in next, Rose and then Rey, while Finn and Benn stayed back, watching over them. And for the faintest of seconds, she could smell all of them. All of their scent signatures. 

It is odd really. Connix swallowed the pain of it down, thinking it was just an overreactive nerve or receptor, given the release of the potent levels of stress threatening her system. The ability left as she closed her mind to it. 

That night has been a monumental change between Poe and Connix. Where Poe had always been unruly with her, to play to her desire, he is slower, making her feel as if she was the last sip of water from an oasis that had long since dried up. He is ritualistically slower making sure he scented her even though she is his Beta. There is nothing wrong with it, per se. Just, really that, he can’t start his own rut by the songs her biology could sing in full desire unlike an Omega could, just by pressing some gland. Poe, being quite the experienced Alpha, noticed something though. A sweetness to her sweat that wasn’t there before, and he found it absolutely necessary to lick it up.

He mouthed over her in her entirety. Humming softly, whispering as his tongue worked over her skin. “You are so beautiful. And mine. And home. And mine.” The last word croaked through his throat as he tried to press on down to the valley of her breasts. “I thought...” The stench of his fear poured out of him as it would if it were smoke billowing out of a burning building. “I thought... I thought…” His voice trails, finding his nose between her breasts. Finally, he just rested on them looking lost.

Con’s breath hitches and releases, knowing she had caused her Alpha so much pain. “I’m so sorry,” she says, carding her fingers through his hair, unable to look at him at first. Her mind starts racing again. As it does, her panic sets in, which she hadn’t had since she was a child. For a moment, she doesn’t know who she is.

Con had life under control, always. And now? Being home after threatening him? It was almost as if she would have accepted that he wasn’t there, or unwilling to take her back, but this? Why did he have this level of compassion for her? She wasn’t an Omega. They didn’t have that biological connection.

But then, she hears his breathing. It guides her to make her to stay in this moment. The two of them, finally together. Forgiveness. He didn’t have to say a word. But then it spilled. All of it. 

“Poe?” Con smoothed her fingers through his hair, speaking to him softly as her nails drew soft designs in his back. 

Poe’s arms tighten around her, feeling desperate. Like she could leave again. Every moment that passed was harder for him to hold. She had never seen this level of vulnerability in their nearly ten years of being together. Sure, the girls made him nervous, all of the time, but it wasn’t anything quite like this. 

Con blinks back the tears that threatened her and she begins to speak. “My name is Kaydel,” she whispers to him. “I was born and raised in Dam Neck, Virginia, basically, Virginia Beach. Well,” she laughs bitterly, “raised is not the word.”

Poe furrows his brow, looking up at her from where he lay on her chest, like a lovestruck puppy dog. She was telling him. Him. “Con—“

“Kaydel, or Kay.” She raises her eyebrows, speaking slowly, “I’m not in service anymore. I’m not an agent, or a soldier. I was told to return to who I was. Complete the transition... and all of that... and this is step one.”  
He stares at her. 

“Say it Poe. Alpha, say my name. Please?”

Letting out a shaky breath, Poe says it. Hearing it from him opens the floodgates from her past. It sounds right on his lips. Not foreign, like she thought it would. Welcoming. Sweet, with a hint of a promise of so much more. 

_Let Alpha trust you. Help him see you’re here to stay._

‘What the hell was that?’ she thought to herself.

She thanks him, keeping her arm wrapped around his bare shoulders. It’s almost for support, she thinks. If she has contact, he can’t run. He can’t get up from her. It’s unheard of for a Beta to harbor that control, but he complies. 

“My parents were druggies. Mom drank, and the guy she was with always looked like he was dead or dying. I couldn’t suppose he was my father though. He looked like an animal, roadkill to be exact, but the monster lived among us. I remember him being tall, lanky, always wore this hideous gold jumpsuit.” Kaydel curls her finger through Poe’s locks, spinning it over and over again. She watches as it tightens and his body seems to tense with it, but he doesn’t ask her to stop. Instead, he leans into her coiling fingers, as if to ask her to continue. 

It’s hypnotic, and Kaydel is actually loving watching the action and reaction, feeling quite childlike in the process.

“Mom really didn’t seem to play the role of a ‘Mom.’ She barely did anything at all. The very second she could put us in school, Jae would walk me there and back. A bus service could have been provided, but my mother didn’t care for the specifics. It must have been nice to birth us and never give a damn after.”

Poe did his best to stay quiet as Kaydel continues. The information threatened his capability to be patient. The more she spoke, he imagined going back in time to rescue her, but the concept was only science fiction.  
No one had the power to — he shook the unreasonable idea from his mind. His focus returned and she was already on to talking about stealing from her mother’s visitors. 

“I just turned five and was accused for stealing from the man’s wallet. I did nothing of the sort. That meant I’d have to touch the monster— and I didn’t do that. Jae didn’t mind though. And I only stole bullets. He never seemed to notice that, though. So long as I never touched their white stripes or wad, I was fine. That night was the first and last time I let anyone touch me.”

She remembers every last detail, omitting certain aspects that could clearly get her in trouble with the law. 

“Wait, who hit you?”

“The man.” 

“With what?” Poe pushed off her up onto his elbows, as if he could see the mark left from twenty years ago.

“His pistol— it’s why I always stole— it doesn’t matter, Poe. The man is gone. My mom went on to the next supplier and eventually died.” Her eyes connected with Poe’s, expressing in the height of his fury, there was nothing more that could be done.

Poe sat up, nearly convulsing in his Alpha bloodlust that all Alphas shared. It didn’t matter if they were dating, married or mated, they all had it. The feeling of helplessness burned through him. Poe grew up in Jersey. He wasn’t that far from her. Kaydel would have been… five? That made him sixteen. Already driving! If he only knew! He had sisters. He knew how to protect. He could have protected Kaydel. Maybe she wouldn’t have gone into the service like Rose said, maybe this would all be different...

Kaydel sits up, crawling to his side to reassure him. She turns her nose up when she gets a whiff of his fury. Kaydel thinks it strange, she noses towards where she knows his scent glands are prominently brighter than she’s seen them before and takes a shallow breath there. She inhales him, unable to really read it. Beta, remember? she tells herself. But she wants to know him the way an omega would. Kay almost thinks she’s learning the language. It seems so primitive, but it’s all she can do to connect with him, to pull him back from his thoughts. She doesn’t even try his name. 

_Alpha knows his name. Call to him as you are. Call to him and he’ll answer you._

This voice inside is absolutely terrifying. She’s been on so many missions. Destroying unseen evils, protecting life for so many unknowing individuals out there in the free world, but not even her biology was something she understood anymore. Thinking of Rey and Ben’s way with her made her wonder if a stripe of her saliva would calm Poe. It is a foolish thought, and she was sure he would turn around and have millions of questions for her. But it called to her. It must be right if she can hear it, she thinks. Kaydel hopes he doesn’t reject her assumption that a Beta could scent an Alpha like him.

But she tries, since something inside her keeps telling her to.

_Alpha needs you. Calm him._

Her hot breath hits him first and the sound of her shallow gulp has spoken volumes to him. Willing himself to calm down far before she even pointed her tongue beyond her lips and down onto his skin. Somehow, God willing, the soft touch of her tongue did just that. 

Calmed him. 

It made her feel powerful. 

But why did it work? She wondered now about that silver case and what the head of the organization, the one that isn’t supposed to exist, meant when he said to go back to her old life.

Poe had asked her why she never tried that before, wanting an honest answer but expecting something more rehearsed. To his surprise, she hugged him around his waist, still bare to each other, saying, “I didn’t think it would work.” Her brow furrowed as she thought of how many times Rey had calmed Ben and wondered if there was something to it. Could a Beta actually communicate to their mate like that? It seemed so now. Poe responded. But then there was that voice.

Hushing the thought, she asks if he can continue with her story.

“Only if you can,” he says simply. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to contain my rage if this boils over as I’m sure it will.” He sighs, saying, “You girls haven’t exactly been easy on me, and I honestly only know to expect a shit storm when it comes to the three of you.”

Kay steadies herself, for the first time in years she’s not sure if she should follow through. “Poe... do you regret this? Finding us? What we have?” 

It didn’t take an expert, but he was sure she was changing. Being out could do some strange shit to soldiers. “No!” He repeats himself again and again—for what feels like a million times over—cradling her in his arms. “You’re everything. It’s just a lot, and fast. And instincts... and I could never see my life without you. Not since the moment I met you,” he reassured her.

“Are... do you want me to continue, or just wait?”

Poe looks at her oddly. “Do what you need to do, Kay, you always have.”

And so they talk. She explains how she learned how to shoot the next day, how she used the skill to hunt and make a little money on the side. Jae caught wind of it and stole her earnings, leaving with his friends, only to come back into her life every six months or so, until social services found them. Their “Aunt” looked a lot like her which sold them on the idea that the pair of siblings belonged to them. That, and a few forged documents solidified their way out of being state property. 

The most fun she remembered having was at the beach, jumping from the pier, before she decided to get the fuck away from Jae and his shitty friends. It rained the night she left. Rain was an understatement. Virginia was being slammed by a category two hurricane. “I figured they could chalk me up to being a casualty, and I’d be free. It took the first bus out... and that was it.”

Poe let that sink in; he swallows the pain behind that memory. Kaydel continues, telling him that she couldn’t disclose anything about the agency she applied to, though. “It’s a federal offense, I can’t open you to that. But this...” she shoves off his lap, crawling across their bed to her nightstand. “I-ah.”

The moment she turned he seemed to remember they were bare to each other. “Kaydel...” Poe’s palm reaches between her spread, kneeling knees. His fingertips draw upwards to her center, and practices saying her name again. Poe rolls each letter around on his tongue as though he was testing a fine wine. “Kaydel,” he pronounces it again, a little strained this time... but then, something seems to change.  
She doesn’t move. Where she’d usually guide his fingers up into her heated folds, she didn’t. She stayed, waiting, as he liquefied her entrance. Poe hums in appreciation as he finds her eager for him and all at once he tries a command. Her name coming from his lips stills her completely; even her breathing caught in the middle of pleading for him.

“Please, Alpha.”

She’s never responded to him like this. Usually, she’d kick at him, pushing him on, but submissive? It felt so wrong. Maybe not wrong... maybe it was too new. Very new... and before she could make another move to reach for the drawers, he’s made his need known. 

His eyes are dark and curious. They pin her in place. “Tell me, Kaydel.” He licks a stripe up her spine, making her eyes roll to the back of her head. As she moans, he echoes it too. He presses one finger lazily into her. His hard length, air dried from where she pleasured him with her mouth before they started talking, tapped urgently against the inside of her thigh. He nearly growled, “Didn’t you want your Alpha to know your name?”

“Yes,” she mewled. 

“Yes, what?” He stopped stroking her. At her pause, he started removing his finger altogether.

“Yes, Alpha.” 

Kaydel is rewarded with his lazy digit. 

“Please—” she rocks back into his hand— “I need more— Alpha!” Poe pushes his second finger, then third, up into her channel, gaining the best moans he’s ever heard out of the woman he clearly loves.

It’s magical. All of it. Sensing her hypothetical shift pushes Poe past all coherent thought. His body hums with untamed power, as if his Alpha mind has been restored. Ten years with a Beta is tiring, almost muting his urges, his smell, his consistency...he was sure he was borderline—becoming a mutation himself.

Rey’s book had suggested it. She was a mutant— how did that even happen? Was it something she was born with? Or evolved into? 

Right now, the power Kaydel gave back to him is rejuvenating. He feels younger, ready to give more than he can take. Her screams, only ricocheting into the wilderness around their mobile home, stirred him on. He was chasing the memory of when they met, as he thrust up into her. He groans as he listens to her calls becoming more desperate. Sex never sounded quite as melodious before. She sounded as if she was following a mental call. It is something only Alphas and Omegas could hear. The man could only hope that this is it. As her orgasm crests, it floods over him, spurring on his. 

“Poe,” she cried. 

Poe clung to her as he tried knotting her. He knew she could take him, even back then she could, which should have struck him as odd. Betas usually clawed at their Alphas in an attempt to get away. But Kaydel never did. She was determined to show him she loved him and would take him for all he was worth.

_____

Tonight, is no exception.

Nevada has cooled since the summer. Construction has completed for both Rose and Kaydel’s houses and Rey’s will be finished in the new year, six months from now. In the meantime, Ben and Rey stayed in the garage during the week and weekends they venture to his house.

Most nights their group still hangs out at the pool behind the garage. It is their place. Similar to a living room in anyone else’s home, the pool is a place of comfort.

As the year passes, stories come up and Kaydel shares them. Rose has been giving, surprisingly, after her disinterest in delving into her past back then.

“That bus was the best and worst of times, though,” she laughs, as they grilled a whole chicken one night. It started as a rotisserie cooking concept, but Finn’s contraption has the bird sliding well off, charring it on one side before they even notice.

“You know, I got that thing from some hoarder in Indiana? Used to drive and all until I got out here.” She smirks at the remainder of her biscuit soaking in their attempt at gravy.  
“How didn’t you get pulled over?” asks Finn, who is actually concerned. “How didn’t you get arrested... or picked up?”

“I had my ways,” she replies, all too confidently.

“What’d they do when they found out you were alone?” 

“They never did.” She reaches into her pocket, pulling out a disabled gadget. The item looks like a dog whistle and is metallic blue in color. Her nail flicks the button on the side, indicating that it would push forward to use the next hidden dosage. “Pressing this down sends out a signal, disabling cognitive thought for five minutes.” Kaydel giggles. “Got me out of some close calls there...”

“Have you?” Poe tries to hide his concern. “Have you ever done that to me?”

Her giggle pierces through him, and that buzzkill of a voice tells her to stop. Her face falls, promising him she never did it, per se. “That doesn’t mean you haven’t by accident.”

Rey can’t stop her outburst, “That’ll teach you to touch things that aren’t yours!” she says, holding her sides in laughter. She brings it up every time she tells him not to take her tools and he still does.

“Hey! In my defense, your tools weren’t always in your belt,” he covers his face with both hands.

“That doesn’t mean don’t put them back,” Rey replies.

During a lull of their conversation, Kaydel is pulled back into a thought, seeing Rey’s crumpled test somehow still blowing around under a bush.

“We are real,” she says, breaking the silence.

“Of course we are! We’re the realest!” Rose spouts, happy with her little one, wrapped up in her arms. Amylin, Poe’s sister, was able to provide Finn and Rose with their own child and since had returned home, keeping in touch weekly as Rose’s on call nurse.

“Yes,” she smiles wistfully at her friend, who doesn’t truly know what she means. “This is real. The realest family I’ve ever been a part of...but that’s not what I meant.” Kaydel stares through her half-lidded eyelashes at the bottle of Corona she’s nursing. “How are you feeling lately, Rey?”

Rey blinks up at her from where her toes are played with the bubbles shooting from the jets in their newly lit pool. She glances then to Ben, who had been cleaning the grill after dinner. “I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life,” she says, surrounded by the people she loves. “Why do you ask?”

“I want to know if it’s worth it. Your designation. Would you replace it if you could? Would you keep it? What does it truly feel like to be you, an Alpha Omega?” Kaydel tries to swallow her past yet again but now all eyes are on her. She can’t go back. Forward is all she can see.

The silence makes her nervous.

“I didn’t want to accept it. You know this. How could I? There aren’t any. A myth. Right? That’s what I am? Isn’t that what you all said? How am I supposed to be the only one of my kind?” The sound of lapping water catches her attention. Ben sits down next to her trying to soothe her the way he always has.

Kaydel just blinks at this. She watches them intently, assuming that her designation is calling to her in a way it hasn’t before. It was wrong, wasn’t it? She had to be in her own head. Trauma, she thought. Finally being out... really being out this time, and all of the haunting insecurities that went with it. 

Poe sits at the table next to her trying to clasp her fisted hand that rests in her lap, but she refuses to open it

“Kay,” He commands her openly, with care, but sternly because she denied him. “Open your hand, baby.”

Kaydel opens it under the table for him to see. The locked silver case has no indication of what it is. Just silver and small. 

“What is this?” He goes to lift it from her palm but she snaps it shut, threatening him the way she did in the hospital. She has worked on this. She wants him to see her for all she really is, but needs the answers first before she can even speak about it. 

“My designation is hard to explain,” Rey starts up again. “I have my Alpha. My mate. But sometimes it’s hard to just be. My Omega side wants me to be accepting, understanding, submissive yet powerful, fruitful, and satisfying...it makes me want to be good, to be praised. My Alpha side wants me to fight for everything. It keeps me strong but even though that test confirmed it, it doesn’t mean I should walk alone. Ben completes me past my biology.” She whimpers at his touch.  
“Why is this important now, Kay?” asks Rose, playing with her son.

“What if I told you, I’m not a Beta?” 

Poe chokes on his gum.

“What if I told you, I went through with a government program to change my designation for safety in the field?”

“What are you saying?” The one she has called her mate for years, stands up in a panic.

“It was painful but necessary. The procedure—modified from the late sixteen hundreds, is actually still practiced today. Specialized weapons. It’s what they call us, Rey.”

“Us?” she asks.

“Alpha Omegas,” Kaydel replies sadly, recounting her surgery. “I can hear them, you know. The voices.”

“Your conscience?” Rose jabs Finn for asking.

Rey actually hisses, “No Finn,” then stands from the water’s edge. 

Ben watches her carefully as she approaches the table. 

“Your conscience tells you right from wrong...but the voice of an Omega can be deceitful, malicious, and needy. She’s made me doubt myself on so many occasions. It’s...she’s why I let you in, Ben.” She thinks about it, repeating all of the times she heard her. “I’m going to sound crazier than I do right now, but when she’s needy she almost sounds like she’s begging for ecstasy. When she’s nasty, I’ve actually felt like I’ve been stabbed in the chest.”

“She seems to always be there...” Kaydel admits, “This box is basically my return trip. My way back into a life I never knew. I just, wanted to be sure I could handle it.”

The girls share a moment where practically everything falls away. Rey moves forward to check her glands, only to see a burn mark roughly the size of the head of a pin. It is pressed into both sides of her neck. Rey lightly blows on them to test her theory. The slightest movements of her relief show that Kaydel is changing, with or without her tiny box. Though the medicine inside will no doubt speed up the process.

Rey praises her.

“I’m glad you’re home, dealing with this here,” Rey says softly to Kaydel. Rey hums in approval, repeating that wench’s voice, the one that tempts her. “Your Alpha is pleased with you. You’ve been such a good girl.”

Poe looks at Rey in shock. His mouth hangs open first in disbelief that this isn’t some strange fantasy he’s always had, but then his defensive nature as Kaydel’s Alpha takes over. Alphas naturally face their dominance issues on a regular basis but now Rey can take part. No one really knows what an Alpha Omega can do.

Still, Poe challenges Rey, grabbing her just above her wrist. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demands an answer from her.

In all Poe knows about single designations, he has not once imagined that a double, firstly, could be possible before the girls, and secondly how dangerous it is to challenge one. Rey keeps her gaze gentle, soothing Kaydel, as if she has immediately taken over ownership of her. She is experienced now. She can handle this. Calmly, she shifts her focus to Poe, who tightens his grip on her as a warning to stand down. Within the pass of a nanosecond, Poe is commanded by Ben, who towers over the table. It’s as if she has called him with no signal. To Rey’s satisfaction, Poe lets go, and she continues calming her sister.

Kaydel shivers at the prospect, not actually giving any thought that her revelation would spur on Rey’s primal instincts. The two call to each other in their own tempting language, actually speaking from their omega’s deepest desires. For once, Kaydel actually feels like herself, not having to know all of the answers. She’s glad that Rey is here and she’s helping her feel more confident in herself. 

“Alpha,” Rey speaks lowly to Kaydel, switching roles deliberately, “you been so good to me...” She gives Kaydel the turn to change as well. 

It takes a moment but she claims the responsibility of the role, rolling her eyes back into her head as if she’s possessed. “Omega,” she calls Rey, “I have done it. You are safe. You will always be, because you are mine...” 

Ben becomes painfully aware that his mate is on the cusp of chemically bonding with Kaydel. Her smell alone proves it. His desperation to keep her kicks into gear, deeming that this is no longer safe.

“Poe,” his voice rumbles like thunder, “take Kaydel home, now!”

Every train of thought is conquered by Ben’s command. It wakes Rey from her hypnotic state, releasing Kaydel from hers. Their pupils are no longer threatening their iris’s color, and the pair can finally see their friends around them. Kaydel looks carefully around the space, trying to assess what just happened.


	2. Listening to Another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey makes up with Ben for her connectionwith Kaydel.
> 
> Rose is relied on heavily for help with Kaydel’s preparation.
> 
> Rey scares the shit out of Rose.

Ben guides Rey into the garage suddenly, purposefully not catching the heavy back door before it slams shut making her jump. His sour mood has him smelling equally so, and while he never once stalked her in anger since that fateful day, the bend in his frame caught her in a panic. Rey’s omega’s instincts see him as threatening and begins to berate her with every last cruel thing she could say to her. She watches as Ben refuses to make eye contact with her, and cards his fingers through his hair trying to make sense of what he just witnessed. It was strange to watch his mate, his center of his universe, take interest in another. It wasn’t just strange. It was heartbreaking. All of what they had been through. His sacrifices, her learning curve, their claims on each other, all for nothing? Right? Because that’s what it felt like. 

Ben does his best not to scare her now. She is still a fighter, and while they live together in the garage most nights, she still has the upper hand. That, though, isn’t in question. He never lays a hand on her that she doesn’t want. Ben is absolutely determined to give her the life she deserves, now and always. However, his Alpha instincts are confused. He keened at the way she actually spoke the words of her Omega, but what did that mean? He wants to hear it? He certainly doesn’t want it to be shared with Kaydel. That was an intimate act, shared only between mates, he reassures himself. 

Before he can analyze this any further, he decided he needs to hear it from Rey, herself. And so he makes his way to her up the stairs into their room. This time, he leaves the door open, not needing to close it. He figures trapping her would insinuate distrust in her as his mate, and that has never worked out in his favor. She runs. Every time she felt cornered or untrustworthy, she has jumped at any opportunity to ride off. Ben recalls one time where she actually jumped off the catwalk, onto the top of his father’s tractor trailer’s cabin. He was sure she injured herself doing it, but she still ran. 

He doesn’t want her to feel this way, not about this. Not about welcoming her sister as the woman she was born to be, another dual designation, such as herself. It was hard enough watching her go through it on her own. But this, this is new territory, and as uncomfortable as it makes him, he needs her to feel like she is still in control. 

Rey however, did not feel in control at all. This, this scared her. Her mate showing pain and anger, cornering her in their bedroom. She watches him as he removes his oil stained jeans, and replaces them with loose fitting, red AND1 designed jersey shorts. ‘

Apt’ he thought as he situates the waistband appropriately. Next off were his socks, followed by his shirt. 

Is this still pleasing to you, Omega? Will you keep me? Or—

He stops the pestering sounds of his desperation before the bastard can speak it. But isn’t that what Rey did? Isn’t it what she coaxed out of Kaydel? It was something he wants to try with his mate, but Ben found himself needing answers, instead of allowing her actions to be swept under the rug.

Finally having the courage to ask her as she stood before him, Ben cups her face, and asks, “What was that? What you did with Kaydel—what was it?”

“What do you mean?” she asks. Rey’s eyes flash a bit of insecurity staring up at her Alpha. His Slate test confirmed that of which he already knew about himself, that he was the top of the line in terms of Alpha biology, and it showed tonight. Usually, she loved his strength, his raw power, his ability to make her feel weak and wanted, as well as full and powerful with just at the bat of an eye. “I... We. I was just trying to help,” Rey stuck up her chin defiantly. Her Alpha is not going to take this from her, or make her uncomfortable that she even tried to help her sister. 

“By impersonating an Alpha?” his voice deepens as he bends in to nuzzle the tip of his nose to hers. “You know, that’s what bad girls do...”

Rey hums in defiance, replying, “I can’t possibly be a bad girl if I’m both.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Ben concedes, pressing his hand down her back, cupping her firm backside, while the other rests in her hair, massaging the base of her neck. 

“But you did work up your Alpha,” he confirms, nodding about it. He eyes flick down from hers as he reassesses the room around them. Ben almost feels as if there’s a shift brewing. He can almost see it coming into fruition, and needs to regain control before he loses his mind. His eyes return to hers as she waits for him, like his good Omega. He speaks again, he says, “You made me jealous over your sister,” Ben admits. 

The tiniest hint of a smile plays on her lips, regarding him oddly. “Are you sure it was jealousy, Ben?” she asks. Her mouth suddenly goes dry when he staggers. Something about it is endearing. “I think you liked hearing from her—“

“No,” he denies enjoying his mate taking on the possibility of another. “You’re the only one for me, Rey.” 

“That’s not who I mean.” Her eyelids flutter closed, saying, “Tell me...Let your Alpha speak for you. Tell me...everything.”

It takes him a moment to process what she’s asking of him. The space between them growing smaller as she presses on to the swell of his chest, urging him on. Her lips find his. She feels different —concentrated— her being a true masterpiece. She controls both of them, knowing now that she isn’t alone...that there are more of her dual designations. It gives her power and has awakened this desert flower past what she’s learned. Her scent overpowers and protects him from all of his wayward thoughts, enough to hear his inner voice. 

“Your Alpha is pleased, little one,” Ben actually says out loud. A twitch under his skin alarms him, and with it he tries the next thing he hears. “You’ve healed your Alpha. Sweet little Omega, I love the way you comfort me...” 

Rey’s pupils blow wider than he’s ever seen. He’s speaking to her inner being, tethering themselves together on a spiritual plain, well past their marks and their promise. When she speaks, it’s all he can do not to buckle at his knees. 

“Show me how much you love it, my Alpha. Your Omega is only yours, no one can come between us,” she says. 

It’s all it takes for Ben to believe her, breaking off from their conversation to a battle of tongues. He feels it again. The raw, untamed power she’s admitting, pushing him higher than they’ve ever been before. Heat radiates between them pushing him down from where he cradled her ass. He bends only slightly, to drop his hands to the underside of her thighs. 

“You’re mine,” he repeats his inner voice, deciding it would be the only one she will hear right now. “My mate. Only mine. Always.”

“Yes Alpha,” she climbs him, wrapping her legs around his waist, needing far more than his bruising kisses. She’s practiced letting go of her inner Alpha in the bedroom, but just as her Omega is concerned, she’s tied to her, so is her Alpha. She’s morphed though, in reference to her ‘king’, assuming her neediest moments are a compilation of both designations. 

She’s expectant too. 

It’s certainly the greediest she’s ever been outside of her heats. Ben presses her into the wall beside their bed, just as she prefers. Rey’s always enjoyed his show of power. The tightening of his grip around her, makes her squeal with delight. 

“Tell me what you want, Alpha. I need to hear you.”

“Say my name when I touch you...tell me what I am to you.”

Rey doesn’t hesitate, “You’re my mate, Ben. My everything.” She never really considered how badly he needed to know. This whole time they responded to the other’s wills based on looks or small gestures around the garage... lingering touches would electrify them throughout the day. Their nights were anything but quiet. Which left her confused as to why he needed to hear the spoken word of her affection. 

Ben genuinely loves her, and she knows. She doesn’t question it in the least. But maybe he does? The thought only provokes her to share more with him. She reminds him of their first times together and how she finally felt like she belonged somewhere. She told him that he gave her a meaning that she didn’t quite understand back then. That she’s sorry for everything that happened in her shift, and how careless she was. That the moments she shares with him, whether down in the shop working or enjoying their time together are special because they’re with him. 

“You were my hero then, Ben... and now? Ben, don’t you know?”

He pulls her away from the wall, struggling to remove his shorts, replying, “I need to hear it from you. I need to know—I wish you’d tell me all the time.” 

Her nighttime clothes were nothing out of the usual. She basically lived in tank tops and thongs. Ever since they sprayed for spiders she’s lived a pretty consistent worry free life. Her family is back together, and it’s proved to be all she’s needed. And Ben? Ben made her want for nothing else. 

Ben continues to beg for her voice to fill his ears, filling her mind with nothing more than promises to her. Promises of everything she could ever want in life. Promising her for children one day. Promising her that their bond is far stronger than anyone else’s. And all of this he promises in the security of his mind.

But she hears him in her mind. Their relationship is far more complex now...Rey can sense it.

It amplifies feelings she’s never felt before. Love? Lust? Sure... maybe it’s the base of her needs; the foundations of this very intimate act they share. They’ve awakened each other past their usual selves...and it is divine. 

She speaks to him in tongues, words of encouragement, not quite begging but certainly not commands. Not to him. 

“I need it,” she admits. “Your fresh mark. My only mate...”

And there it is, the very last bit of confirmation he desires. He does exactly as she asks, stripping each other down to their natural state. 

“You are so beautiful, my mate... only mine,” he repeats as he lowers her down to the center of their bed. He’s always loved this space the best. The mattress always kept their shared scents, never really free of their first time together. It’s a beautiful mix of past and present that he holds on to so dearly. 

She calls to him again in, whining in protest in her mind about how long their bodies haven’t been connected. It hasn’t been that long, but he smirks before he dives right back down, covering her with his own. 

Her skin is warm and soft, not quite like a heat but certainly not normal. She feels different. Ready. Like the way she does just before her heat is up. It’s teasing him almost. Where he could enjoy a nice slow fuck with her, he feels feverish himself, starting what he can only assume is a mini rut. He cannot believe he’s even considering that’s what it is, but hell, it’s what if fucking feels like. 

He suckles on the curve of her neck listening to Rey gasp at the feel of his lips pulling at her skin. He’s hard, rocking insistently at her core, slipping upwards between the lips of her core, pushing her own arousal up and over his length. He knows she loves the feeling of his cock’s ridges stroking her clit far more than the way the pads of his fingers do. He rolls his hips insistently, pushing down on her harder and harder until she screams his name. 

He revels in the way she writhes below him, smirking as he does, as he lowers himself into her. Usually, he’d draw his tongue down her body to lap up what she shared, but tonight he feels urgent. As if his body would implode on itself if he didn’t enter her right away. 

Of course Rey still uses their gift to call to him even though she’s a mess of bliss and incapable to use her muscles to guide him into her. 

“Alpha, Ben...” she pants now aloud, “fill me.” Her eyes roll around in her head as if she’s not completely there. “Fill me, I’ll be so good for you,” she whines.

“You’re always good for me,” he grits out, lining up the head of his cock to press into her soaked channel. “So good,” he promises her, as he pushes his member deep inside her. 

He stills for a moment, wondering if he already started to swell. His mate’s moan seems to confirm he may have, but then he feels her press her palms down onto the flesh of his ass, needing to feel all of him. 

“You... you feel, Ben,” she gasps as he forces his hips fit perfectly against hers. “You feel thicker, Ben. Oh—“ she groans, grinding him into her. Her sticky mess pulls at her sensitive clit at every tiny shift between the two, making her shudder with pleasure even more.

“I think I am—“

“No... you’re just bigger, Ben,” she grinds with him again, clenching hard around him. 

He faintly hears her voice in his head assuring him that it’s true... that when his knot swells he feels different...That his cock bends slightly higher, curving into her, where she absolutely needs him. He blushes a little at the image she’s concocting in his mind, but loves their new ability. 

It takes no time at all to convince her how badly he needs to pound into her with his new girth. He hopes it’s not a medical thing that should be looked at, but instead focuses on the sounds and pleas she makes, begging for his huge cock and a number of other vulgar things she says to him. 

She’s meeting him thrust for thrust, promising the other their undying love. His pace has her wrapped so tightly around his body, he nearly sees stars when he pulls her up onto his lap, fucking her harder until they both sink their teeth further into the other at the same time.

“I love you!” Rey wails while she comes. She’s sure she’s loud enough to be heard for miles, smiling only slightly when Ben follows suit. His breathy moan rips through her while he empties himself into her. His mouth hangs open wide when his knot expands and Rey takes the opportunity to run her fingers through his sweaty hair. He feels her kiss his face as she always has. Tenderly. It always makes him feel her love, but most importantly, he feels cherished. 

They both lap over the other’s wound promising themselves to the other with trust and love. 

——

Meanwhile, Kaydel keeps a hold on her little box, asking Poe, who is crowding her, in their spacious room—the same room he thought would be beautiful and inviting, was now too big. He hated feeling like they had room for multiple adults—Alphas—Rey who could show up and take over at any time.

Their little love-hate relationship evolved tonight from playful banter to a real strain and Kaydel could actually feel it. It wasn’t just his jumpiness, it’s also the very fact that he makes it imperative to have some sort of food in his sock drawer and drinks lined up on the top of the dresser itself. 

“I’m not going into heat, Poe,” she tries to assure him. 

“But you could—“

“But I’m not.” Kaydel watches him tense up again, being that she doesn’t accept his information, or his provisions. It isn’t that she doesn’t though, per se. It was more that it’s been a year since she’s been given the container, and she’s been in the field for half the time she’s been alive. “It’s going to take a lot more than admitting I can hear the voices to get me going, Poe.

“But that’s just it! It didn’t,” he stresses. “You might not have your glands or intentionally reacted, but you did, and all she said was...”

“It was just an experiment! She repeated what I’m hearing, and what I need to hear Poe. Don’t you hear them as an Alpha?” Kaydel pushes him aside. Her anger flares as he makes his position on their display known. “We can’t possibly be the only ones that can!” 

Your Alpha is displeased.

Kaydel curses at her Omega under her breath, picking up her phone to text Rose.

[-Kaydel-]  
Are you still awake?

[-Rose-]  
Yeah. Why?

It brings a smile to her lips that her sister is always quick to answer her. 

[-Kaydel-]  
Can you get me a shot—or six, from Rey?”

That one took her a minute to fully understand.

[-Rose-]  
Why do you want six suppressants? 

[-Kaydel-]  
I’m going to need it in my system when I down the box.

[-Rose-]  
Give me five minutes. 

Rose has always kept her word on time. It didn’t matter if hell froze over. The woman could move heaven and earth to help her sisters. 

[-Rose-]   
Knock, knock. 

Kaydel said nothing to Poe and left their room in her ratty night gown. It wasn’t disgusting so to say, it just had seen better days. The material itself became ultra thin after nearly ten years of washing it, breaking down the fibers of the thick cotton gown it once was. These days, it became sheer enough in some spots to make out the color of her skin underneath it. 

No matter how many times Poe offered to replace it, she quickly denied him. Her yellow rose bud printed night gown will last until it is shredded scraps of nothing. And once it got to that point, she will use it’s remains until even that turned up to be nothing.

Kaydel has a plan tonight. It has been enough waiting. She is changing, and she will need to embrace it head on instead of ignoring it all together. Ignoring it will put all of the Alphas including Rey at a disadvantage. Rey being mated doesn’t seem to put her in a position to reject her either. The very fact is new to them both. She winces when imagines how Ben must be taking to it. 

“It’ll all be over soon,” she says low enough to herself that she thinks she’s in the clear. Poe’s behavior has her thinking differently, but only allows herself to linger on it for moments.

“Where do you think—“ he’s cut off by the sound of knocking at their front door. He watches her pad down the hall from their bedroom to it in her scraps, she calls pajamas. “Do not open that door,” he tries to command her. 

Too bad for him she’s just barely flirting with the change. Kaydel’s body will soon be overthrown, but for now she can maintain all three designations at will. Part of her liked the idea of being impartial to whatever Poe was complaining about now, but at some point she’d break, and it wasn’t unheard of to meld with the spectrum of a Beta in the whatever she is identifying as at that particular moment. 

Being a Beta to her means to be the control. It’s what the First Order required. They were loyal, capable manifestations of the law. They are strong, sound, and unbreakable, as she’s noticing now with that damned voice haunting her. Alphas are strong and capable leaders, expected to protect, lay down their lives and still return to their mates. Omegas, she’s only has a hand full of experiences where she’s actually felt submissive. Kaydel assumes that’s really what it was, despite not hearing her voice in the beginning. Other than that, she really has no idea what their purpose is, besides making babies. 

Being in limbo, stuck between the three, makes it hard to vouch for each of them.   
It seems as if they’re all melding together now. Characteristics. Traits. Everything she’s ever come to expect from each of them is a blur. Beta has been the steadiest attribute she’s ever known... but now even that is dwindling. 

Poe tries her name again, scurrying behind her as she reaches for the door. “Babe, who?...”

Kaydel grasps the silver knob, twists it and tugs sharply to give Poe a hint as to how patient she is. He needs to understand that this is happening, with or without his support. 

Poe stands upright from crouching, trying to see around Kaydel to find out who is at the door when he hears Rose’s voice. “Oh... Hey, Rose,” he tries to sound calm even though he’s on edge. 

The girls share an exasperated expression between the two, both raising their eyebrows and looking through each other. Rose follows up returning his greeting before being welcomed inside. 

“I had to take these from Rey,” she says as she settles down in their living room, to the left of their foyer. The room itself is spacious, softly colored, shaded in pastel blues, off white and grey. If it weren’t for the windows that lined that side of the house, Kay would have had it painted in any other color, even if it matched the dirt she couldn’t clean from underneath her nails. Those colors held a value. They reminded her of that sterile room they performed her surgery in. Poe, though, told her it makes him think of the days to come; that they could be their fresh start colors. It was something she was trying to accept. 

For now, it doesn’t matter much. There are more pressing matters to get to, like figuring out where is best location to get this going, and if she should really be doing this without Rey. It feels wrong, like her Omega is beginning to make her weepy over the thought. 

“Listen to me very carefully, Kaydel,” Rose speaks slowly. “There’s a lot to consider with this. First, you’ll need to be on the shot’s for a few days,” she says. 

Kaydel’s brow furrows trying to accept what Rose is telling her. 

“Why?” she asks. 

Rose doesn’t hesitate to explain the obvious changes she’ll experience. “Right now your scent is matured, but only comes in waves, which means your scent’s radius is really only inches from your glands. So Poe can smell you when he’s near, or if you’ve touched something, where other Alphas cannot. Or if they do, like in Ben’s case, being the true Alpha—“

Poe interrupts by clearing his throat. 

“The test doesn’t lie, Poe,” she says definitely. “You should really take it. I think it will help you communicate better with Kaydel when she changes, wholly.”

Poe crosses his arms over his chest waiting for more information, and Rose continues. 

“I’ll need you to take one too, Kaydel,” she adds. “I’ll need you both to take it before you eat,” Rose says as she pulls the Slate boxes out of her bag. “You’ll do this before your shot, and then again after.”

“After the medicine or the suppressant?” Kaydel asks, clearly not focusing as she wards off an unwelcome pinch in her neck. 

“Hmm,” Rose dives into her purse again, looking for her book. “How long have you been handling that pain?”

“On my neck?” she asks. “It comes and goes. Usually the worst when I hear the word, ‘no’.”

“Hmm,” Rose thinks again, “Well, I’m no doctor, but Rey has those problems when she’s about to go into heat. But you’re not fully changed over yet... so maybe it’s just stress? Or exhaustion? Or a migraine?...” Then Rose adds, “Let me have your thigh, and I’ll give you the first suppressant.”

Kaydel moves to sit on one of the chairs in their living room and hikes the hem of her night gown to her hip. “Should I know anything about this? Like, will I feel anything at all?” she asks as Rose hovers over her, pulling the cap off of the syringe. 

“This is just to block your smell. We need you on it for long enough to board the windows in here, and barricade you from the outside world, Kaydel.” Rose says, pinching her sister’s thigh. “Remember how Rey’s heats would call Alphas from miles around?” she looks at Kaydel with an apologetic smile. “That’s going to be you, babe.”

Poe grimaces. “Wait, what? For miles?”

Roes doesn’t wait to answer Poe. She quickly inserts the needle into the muscle of her pinched thigh and injects Kaydel with the serum evenly. It’s thicker than that of the flu shot, and feels more like honey is being forced into her veins. As the syringe is emptied, and the dosage spreads around her joints, she lets out a painful gasp. 

Poe surges forward to get to Kaydel’s side. His alpha behavior has him wanting to take the pain, trying to protect her from any more of it. He wants to shove Rose away, but fights it. Being cast out right now, while the love of his life is changing sounds like the worst possible outcome—and knows Rose would stop at nothing to make it so. Instead, Poe kneels by her side, placing his hand over the place of the injection. 

“No not there!” Rose hisses. “If you want to help, rub out her joints. If you do it there, you’ll break down the protein, and I’ll have to give another one.”

Poe looks up at Rose, needing an explanation. He looks so lost Rose can’t help but want to try to be nice to him. It’s not that she isn’t, she’s just short with the man. He doesn’t seem to get the concept that everything she’s saying has a purpose, and now is not the time to challenge ‘little Beta Rose.’

“Press one of your mitts into her hip and rub it in a circular motion until she stops complaining. Then move to her knee and do the same.”

While Rose puts the cap back on the syringe, she adds, “Try to remember, Rey had to take these things all the time. She had no mate to rub it out. It was usually one of us helping her through. Don’t be surprised if Rey wants to help her along— I wouldn’t be surprised, actually, if she could sense her right now.”

“You said, helped her through this. What does that mean?”

“The shots, Poe,” she says, putting the emptied one into a coffee can she purposely brought to leave there. “They don’t get easier. And if she needs an emergency shot, she’s going to be in pain for hours. But like I said...you’re here. Your her mate, even if you haven’t bitten her, you are each other’s. When it’s time, you mate her, a lot. Until she changes, like Rey.”

“Changes?”

“Are you really that blind?” Rose’s posture changes as she flops on the seat across from them. 

Poe tried to ignore her tone while he rubs circles into Kaydel’s skin. When she sighs, thanking him, he leans forward to kiss her hip. 

Rose rolls her eyes at the affection wondering if he’s trying to speak to her Omega. She watches him place feather light kisses down her thigh, one lingering over the raised injection spot, all the way to her knee before he looks up at her. 

Kaydel’s eyes look glassy—lazy even, and remind Rose to tell Poe to get her upstairs to bed. “She’s going to need to sleep. Only water tonight,” she reminds Poe as he scoops Kaydel into his arms to do just that. 

“Thanks Rose,” he calls over his shoulder. 

“I’ll be back in the morning for the next shot. Eight sharp—do not give it to her yourself!” Rose hears him give a sound of understanding before closing their bedroom door. Rose is left to see herself out, huffing at the texts that lined up while she was handling Kaydel from Finn. 

[-FINN-]  
When are you coming home?   
He’s still asleep.  
Nope.  
He’s crying.  
What do I do?   
Oh wait...I found the list. How do I check for a wet diaper?  
Never mind. It’s poop. And it’s on my finger.  
Rose.  
Rose?  
When are you coming home?

Rose chuckles a little. Serves him right for not doing more diapers, she thinks to herself. As she makes it back the house isn’t a mess like she thought it would be. There’s no poop smeared anywhere, it actually smells faintly like Lysol almost everywhere, and the two are asleep in bed when she finally makes it upstairs. 

Rose carefully picks up her son, who she had the honor of naming Charlie. Her choice wasn’t exactly about the name specifically. She actually chose it due to her love of the military alphabet. Sure, Finn being in the Air Force had something to do with it, too. Rose slips and calls Finn foxtrot sometimes without warning. She’s done it in the grocery store and several times while they’ve taken little Charlie to the doctor for his monthly checkups.

The baby’s name came down to Charlie or Mike, which wasn’t really a hard decision. Mike Trooper sounded weird to her, and she favored the concept of: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. That is, until he found out his own designation. Not that Bravo actually translated to Beta, but that’s how she had it figured out in her head. Charlie’s name was the winner. Besides, she thought Charlie Trooper just sounded cuter. 

Finn stirs when Rose picks up Charlie to hug him before putting him in his crib next to their bed. 

“How? How’d it go?” he manages to whisper his questions. Finn is usually not good at this. It has taken him the full six months Charlie has been home to train himself to wake up quietly. 

“It went,” she replies. 

“You’re not really telling me anything when you say that, you know,” he says. 

“It’s just going to be interesting, Finn.” Rose settles on the edge of their bed, removing her shoes, and sweatshirt. Next to be released is her bra before she snuggles up next to Finn. 

“She’s going to need help. And I don’t think Poe is really going to be able to accept it.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well,” she tucks her head under his chin, continuing, “I just have a feeling, I guess. We’ve all done everything together. There’s nothing—really—we haven’t...and I’m almost positive that when the time comes, that she does change over, he won’t be the only thing she needs... until he bites her I guess. At least, the biting portion is explained in that book. But her emotional needs have to be covered by a dual or stronger presentation.”

“And you think Poe isn’t strong enough for her?”

“I’m not sure. Rey said she got her heat two days earlier because of Ben. When we tested him, he was at the highest bracket for his Alpha presentation. He must have been breed by a long line of them to get that result. But didn’t Poe say his family is divided: two Alpha sisters and three Omegas?”

“What would that prove? That he’s not personally capable because they aren’t all Alphas?”

“It’s just speculation right now. I’m going to test them in the morning, give her the next shot, and then probably start the process—“

Finn interrupts Rose asking, “Process? You’re going to push her into a heat cycle tomorrow? Does Poe know?”

“First, I don’t know what the medicine is going to do, so their home needs to be stocked and boarded up. When we were with Rey, the hangar kept her safe. Why do you think the back is gated off? Why do you think there are locks on every hatch and door?”

“Okay, okay...what do you need from me?” Finn asks. 

“I’m going to need you to watch Charlie, like the amazing father you are. If she goes into heat, I’ll be stuck there for a few days.”

“—But isn’t that between Poe and Kaydel?”

“It is, but I’ve never heard of a serum changing a designation before. I assume it’s potent. I don’t want any harm to come to you or Charlie if I have a reaction to it just from giving it to her. What if she has a problem?”

This stops Finn’s comments completely. What if she changes? Even just a little. Would that mean she could conceive their own children? The thought makes him hold his breath, wondering if it is something he should look into.

“Finn?” Rose asks, “Do you think you’ll be alright for three days? Maybe a week depending on whether or not she goes right into it?”

“Um, what? Uh, yeah,” he says seeming uncomfortable by it. 

“You know, you could always call Paige... but my Mom would be with her—and I know how much you love my Mom,” Rose snorts.

Finn sighs, “Yeah... I’ll try it on my own. I mean... I did good tonight. Right?”

“Besides your amazing texts?” Rose’s laughter rings through their room making Charlie squeak. 

“If he wakes up—you’re on that,” he laughs a little louder than he means to.

Rose pulls the covers over her head, saying, “I’m not here.” She feels Finn’s arms pull her closer to him and listens to the way he laughs. It reminds her of when she met him and how important she felt then when she knew she was all he could see. 

“I love you, Finn,” she admits because it’s true... and she can’t help but remind him all of the time.

“I love you too, Rose,” Finn says while he tries to control a yawn. 

——-

The next morning Rose wakes to banging on her door. Neither Finn or Charlie are in their room. Rose figure’s he decided to step up this morning.

That’s nice. 

What a good Alpha she thinks.

Rose rolls over to check her phone. It’s only five thirty.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Rose grumbles as she gets out of bed. 

She double checks her phone. No texts. Only missed calls and voicemails? 

“What the hell?” she groans.

The list of missed calls are mostly from Finn. Several are from Rey and two are from Ben. She wonders if they all just happened to get her phone number confused with something else, but then it goes off in her hand. 

She answers it seconds after the start of the first ring. 

“What?” Rose doesn’t hold back. This is annoying. Usually she would be fine with being needed, but three hours of sleep means they have the snippy version of their lovely Rose. Not the patient one. 

“Good morning, sweetheart...” giggles Rey.

“Rey. Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“I hardly think it matters.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Want to borrow Charlie and find out?”

“I don’t think I’ll be needing to. Are you going to open your door or what?”

“Don’t think you’ll be needing to?” Rose searches for her bra. “What do you mean, don’t think you’ll be needing to?” 

Rose grabs her sweatshirt from before and her shoes, finding Finn and Charlie watching cartoons downstairs in their living room. Rose can barely make out what they’re watching, only catching ACME come up on the screen once or twice, figuring it must be some old Roadrunner cartoon.

She pads up past them running her hand over his shoulders, asking if he needs anything, and then adds, “Rey is at the door. Did you hear her?”

Finn snores loudly scaring both Charlie and himself awake, answering her question. 

“Sorry, Rey,” she says opening the door to her friend. “Come on in. I’ll get the coffee going.”

Rey smiles at her sister, “Maybe tea instead? Decaf if you have it?”

Rose’s brain feels broken. Tea? What’s tea? And furthermore, what is decaf? Like a calf? Or the cafe? Or the cafeteria? Rey did not just call her home a cafeteria. 

“Decaf?” Rose repeats her friend. 

“Why don’t we go get breakfast?” Rey suggests.

Rose grumbles something incoherent again.

“Rose?” 

“Rey, not this morning. I have to be next door in two hours to prep Kay for her second shot.” 

Rey’s eyes widen, wanting more information on Kay. Over the time that she was gone, Rose and Rey bonded, becoming nearly as inseparable as she was with Kaydel, which admittedly irritated both Finn and Ben. Neither challenged the girls, but it was obvious, up until six months ago, when it all slowed down. 

Ben regained some control on Rey and his relationship, while Finn and Rose welcomed Charlie. Rose, while she was cooped up, she started taking online classes through the nearest med school. Being one of the only level headed in their group, she felt it was necessary. Rose didn’t hold back either, packing in the classes in biology specializing in genetics, anatomy, psychology. If they force her to take a humanity to graduate, her choice will be a toss up between western literature and mythology, or creative writing, because who the hell would believe anything she’s been through so far? 

Thankfully, it hasn’t come to that. Her first semester had her completing each class with high marks: B+ or higher. And while she constantly reminded her family that she is not a doctor, they can’t help but completely overlook that truth. Rose is relied on for far more now than she ever was. 

She shares what she can with Rey, knowing that her Alpha and Omega can sense bullshit. 

“This is touch and go right now. I’m going to give her the second suppressant, and then they’re both going to take the Slate tests. And after that, we need to be ready.”

“Ready?” Rey prompts her sister. 

“We need to board everything up, get a handle on Poe, make sure he’s ready in case that case’s dosage throws her into heat.”

All at once Rey’s body electrifies. 

Rose can see it as it happens, and mentally notes not to use the word “heat” around Rey, or Kaydel for that matter. She spits several curses trying to get Rey’s attention back. 

Rey, though, is searching for Kaydel in another plain. Her pupils blow wide making her look like wild animal on the hunt. It’s quite terrifying. Rose thinks Rey can read her mind while she’s like this. Even if she can’t, Rose makes sure she doesn’t make any sudden movements or call for Ben’s assistance. 

Rey is on edge. 

And... Charlie is in the next room. So Rose does the only logical thing she can think of: She offer’s Rey food. 

“I have cinnamon rolls, eggs and tailor ham. Does that sound good?” Rose motions over to the kitchen, feeling like she’s being pinned. It’s as if Rey is telling her not to move, so she stops. “No?”

When Rose turns, it takes everything in her power not to scream out of fear. Rey somehow managed to get from where she was in the living room to Rose without making a sound. Her eyes are still wide, trying to accept that Kaydel’s scent is lingering on Rose. She sniffs at Rose’s hair, taking long breaths, trying to get a sense of who it is she’s with, even though she can clearly see Rose before her.

It reminds Rose of all those dinosaur movies she’s actually afraid of. Only here, she doesn’t exactly think she’ll be eaten. 

“Rey?” Rose tries her name.

“Be still,” she returns Rose’s question.

Rey is still in there. 

Rose thinks that it may have been possible that Kaydel was in her Omega’s from just a few hours ago. If that’s the case, she could have been emitting her need through her pores, much like how sweat is expelled. She tells herself she’ll have to read up more about it, and some how Rey nods as if she was in her mind with her. 

Rose’s mind races trying to remember what she touched. Finn, Charlie, her bed... it must be in the house now, confusing Rey. 

“Kaydel is next door, with Poe,” Rose confirms. “She isn’t here.”

“But you smell like her. Why?” Rey asks, “Why is it so strong? Did she scent you?” Rey’s pupils recede as if Rey feels pain in her choice that hasn’t been made. 

“She did not scent me, Rey,” Rose confirms. “If you don’t believe me, I haven’t showered, yet. If you try, you won’t taste her on my skin,” she says as she stands as tall as she can next to her sister.

Rey’s lips part as she weighs this invitation. She looks as if she’s trying to ward off the Alpha guiding her to take a taste, when Ben’s voice tears down the hallway from the foyer, making Charlie cry in the living room. Both girls jump because of this for different reasons. 

“Rey!” He commands her with a shout. 

“Alpha,” she whispers in return. Rey’s eyes roll back into her head as she collapses into a puddle of herself on the floor. 

“Um, Ben?” Rose asks for him to come get his mate. She’s trembling from the encounter, trying to make sense of it all when Ben comes up to find her. 

Ben is able to detect the mix of pheromones, knowing Rose does not smell like that, he tries to expel it from his nose quickly. It’s not pleasing by any means. As he thinks about it, Omega’s are supposed to be enjoyable, like Rey is to him ‘what can that mean then for Kaydel?’ he thinks.

And then it hits him. Kaydel must be more  
Alpha than Omega.

Shit.


	3. Defying the Sisters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose’s nerves are shot. Rose says no to Rey and because of it begins hallucinating. Kaydel goes too far 
> 
> Tests are taken and medicine is given.

A shower. Yes. A shower is what Rose needs, and a damned bell. Rey needs a bell, Rose thinks. That was spooky as hell having Rey react to her like that. It certainly wasn’t anything she’s ever experienced... and even now as she used half the bottle of her French Vanilla scented shampoo, she wonders if Kaydel’s scent is still on her somehow. During her fourth rinse cycle, she thinks maybe she should be using Finn’s shampoo. Maybe smelling like him would be better. But what if her scent and Finn’s shampoo combined made Rey crazier? ‘Oh, God...What if it makes Kaydel crazy too?’ Rose continues to weigh her options and curse. Lots of cursing. It seems to be the only way she can deal with her shower. 

Her cursing spell seems to carry on for the next hour. She’s cursed at her clothing, then at the stairs, she curses at the spot in her kitchen that now haunts her. Her cursing follows her around now like her shadow catching Finn off guard when she piles it on, using some vulgar commentary after every last word she speaks to him.

“Rose?” Finn finally commands her to stop her filthy mouth. 

Rose simply pouts, trying to stop the flow of frustration forming at her lips. She does her best to hold on to it until Finn urges her to just talk to him. 

“Charlie is going to learn all of that before he says Mama if you don’t stop.” He continues when she finally smiles, asking, “Do you really want him dropping f-bombs instead of calling you Mommy?”

Rose shakes her head. Her wet hair sprinkles water droplets all over the kitchen. “I’m sorry,” she says. “This morning really messed me up.” Rose’s brow furrows, “Did you call Ben? Or did he just show up?”

“I’m pretty sure he would have shown up on his own, given the smell that has saturated this house... but, I called him,” he confirms. “What was that all about anyway?”

“She could smell Kaydel on me from the shot I gave her. She looked at me like I bit Ben... like I claimed her mate, Finn...” she answers as she looks down at her feet. “It’s actually the first time I’ve been scared of her.”

Finn reaches out to hug Rose, holding her until Charlie starts fussing. “You know, this means Kaydel has to be claimed, right? Like right away—probably multiple times...” 

“Yeah... what’s your point?” Rose asks.

“If she goes into heat right away, you’ll pick up the scent from both of them.”

Rose groans. “And if I do, and Rey gets in, then what?...”

“She’ll be confused and look to mate you...”

“Finn...” Rose warns, “Please? Please don’t make me remember that...”

“But you have to,” he breathes into her hair. “You have to be ready so you can get out.” 

——-

Eight o’clock happens sooner than Rose is ready to accept. She’s already at Kaydel’s door but is greeted by Ben instead of their house’s dwellers. Rose brings up a hand to her forehead, pinching her thumb and index finger around the bridge of her nose in exasperation. 

“Yes, I know,” Ben interrupts Rose’s frustrated thoughts before she can start then next string of curses.

“What do you know... what do any of you know? Nothing we all know nothing!” Rose huffs as she brushes past him. It isn’t exactly fair to be mad at Ben, but it is his fault he can’t keep Rey out of reach of Kaydel, just like she couldn’t control Rey while she harassed her in the kitchen. Some higher level bullshit is happening, but Rose isn’t ready to accept it just yet.

As she enters she sees Poe wrapping his arms around Kaydel’s waist, trying to tug her into his lap, scenting her as Rey stares daggers into his soul. She growls at him, like a wild animal, while she presses her palms onto her sister’s lap, making sure she stays in her place on the couch. 

Ben closes the door and strides across the room to recollect his mate, giving a grumble of an agreement as he picks up on Rose’s comments. 

“You have got to be fucking kidding me... You knew I was doing this today, Rey.” She pulls out the next shot from her bag, prepping Kaydel as she spoke. “I don’t need extra hands. She’s going to take this—Poe is going to take her pain away, and then she’s... wait...” Rose furrows her brow thinking back to hours ago.

Rey looks at Rose expectantly.

“What did you mean: you didn’t think you’d need to borrow Charlie?” Rose asks, and follows asking, “Are you?...Are you pregnant?”

Rey, now tucked underneath Ben’s body, answers, “My heat is late by three days. I haven’t tested, but I’m sure I would have shown signs for it right after my last heat... like the next day.”

“And you think working on Kaydel is going to push you over? You think it’s going to start one?” 

Rey fiddles with her finger nails, not wanting to answer. 

“Rey,” Ben wants this confirmation. If her curiosity is stemming from that, then fine. Do it, start your heat so Alpha can take care of you. He hates it that her curiosity is driving her past needing him. Usually he is all she needs. This is new ground for the both of them though. He’s sure he doesn’t want to share, and that Poe will suffer considerably if he so much as breathes on her... but if it spikes her drive, maybe she could draw her hibernating heat cycle out. Maybe they could have a family. Maybe that’s what Rey is craving. 

“While I do this, take Rey next door and test her. Pee sticks are in the bathroom next to Amilyn’s old room, under the sink.” The pair look at her oddly while Rose administers Kaydel’s morning shot. 

“Don’t rub her until the medicine makes it to her joints, Poe.”

Poe grumbles at her but stops suddenly, watching Kaydel’s pleading expression. He keeps his hand up on her hip, resting it there as a claim telling the rest that they will not touch her. 

“Did I mumble?” Rose hollers over her shoulder as she tends to the two in front of her. 

Both Ben and Rey look at each other, wondering where this side of Rose came from. 

Stress plus no sleep makes Rose the commander of this ship. 

“They’re both doing their Slate tests next, and then eating. If you go now you’ll be here for the results. If you don’t go, Poe will escort you out.”

Poe actually grins for the first time this morning. He’s been jittery since Kaydel dropped the bomb that she was a dual designation. Rey had been exceedingly annoying, trying to come between the two of them at every moment of every day. The idea of having them leave for this private moment, less Rose, who Poe liked to refer back to as doctor, made him feel at ease.

“Just go, Omega,” Kaydel grunts, leaving the room in shock. “We won’t start with out you.”

With that, Rey leaves in a huff. Scolded. That’s what she thinks Kaydel did. Why would she even?... 

Ben’s Alpha starts to talk her down, reminding her that Kaydel said Rose will wait. It doesn’t seem to be enough though. Rey teeters between both designations actually arguing with herself out loud as they leave. 

Rose gets up to throw out the used syringe like the night before, and then she walks off to the kitchen to wash her hands. She’s sure to scrub them like she’s going off to surgery, wanting to ward off the discomfort Rey put her through already. She can’t help but imagine what Kaydel might do if she picks up someone else’s scent on her. Rose groans wondering why Kaydel couldn’t have been a natural born Beta, like her. 

Beta life is not that bad. It’s not like they couldn’t have a normal life with their significant other. It’s not like three hundred years ago, when it had to be Alpha to Omega and beta to beta to ensure the supernatural self between Alphas and Omegas could be satisfied. Rose rolls her eyes at the thought, wondering what other nonsense they believed all that time ago. 

Rose eyes the Slate tests, but doesn’t pick them up. She’s got the faintest feeling she’s being watched, so she picks up her phone instead. Rose scrolls through the course catalog for school once more, electing to pick up ‘Biological Mythology Studies’ as her fourth class, expected to start in the next two weeks. Shaking her head at this mess, she feels the room shift. Something feels different. Very different. 

Rose clicks her tongue trying to ignore it. It’s nothing. Just nerves. There’s no way the light got brighter over head. She’s just imagining it. That’s all. 

That’s not all. 

Wrestling sounds start up in the next room and Rose is sure Kaydel has changed on her own and started her heat... Rose gags at the thought of being stuck there for that. It wasn’t like she didn’t think it was a possibility, but if she could shower and leave, that would be her plan of action. She tries covering both her eyes and ears at the same time, but is failing at even that. Then she remembers, ‘Duh! I have eyelids,’ she thinks to herself. 

Her hands are not enough to cover the sounds coming from the living room. Kaydel is loud. Pursing her lips she tells herself that she has to be the adult here, forcing herself to face the bullshit in the next room. 

Rose leaves her seat with a huff and stomps through their hallway into the living room. She stands stalk still and cannot believe what she finds. 

The living room has been torn apart, save for the actual fabric on the sofa, practically everything is in shambles. Rose watches as Kaydel nips at herself. She has bite marks all over her arms, presumably made by herself. Her head jerks around as she watches the imaginary parasite runs through her veins. Her face turns awfully, scowling at her discomfort before lunging in at another place for her teeth to sink in on her bicep. 

Poe winces watching her practically claim herself over and over again. As an Alpha, seeing multiple impression wounds on his mate-to-be is terrifying. Nearly as bad—well, he couldn’t compare it to Rey’s abduction. No one could. It wouldn’t be fair to. But it still hurt him. If anyone was going to break her skin, it should be him. He should do it—but she won’t let him near. 

Several times Poe smelled her shift, even through the suppressants Rose just gave. She smells ready... but then, insecure, flipping immediately to powerful, and sure. Her designation shifts change her from needy to destructive in a second’s notice. He’s already received a bruise to his rib cage, and he’s almost positive she’s knocked his tooth loose. 

He regards her like a wild animal, but that’s not fair. Somewhere trapped in there is his girl... and he has no idea how to coax her out. 

In a flurry of movement, Rey is back. It’s almost as though she never left. The concept is terrifying. Maybe that’s why Rose didn’t feel alone just before? Rose doesn’t dwell on it. Instead she jumps when Ben comes up behind her trying to command Rey to stop. 

Rey is quick to Kaydel’s side. It’s odd to watch, Rose supposes, for the men... but if she remembered correctly, they did try scenting each other for protection long ago. It feels weird to watch now, but Rose feels they need supervision, as if she was tending to a nursery. Surely, she is. The men might actually start a riot over seeing their mates with the other’s. 

She picks up the chairs, resets the cushions, and sets up the glass table in front of her. Dried bone and rock pieces that sat inside a basket as a center piece, is now scattered all over the floor. For safety, Rose gathers this up, too. Several times, she told Ben and Poe to sit down. Neither listened. Both obviously charged, ready to lunge in for their girl if they so much as licked the other. 

Kaydel is the first to speak up. 

“Rey?” She whines her sister’s name, shaking her arms as if she could rattle the annoyance out of her veins. It doesn’t work, and because of it, she’s close to tears. 

“Shh, babe. I’m here,” Rey crouches low enough to the floor, getting to Kaydel’s level. It’s an act of intimacy and respect Ben had given her for years. 

“They!” Kay holds up her arms revealing what she’s been through already. 

“Yes, I know. You’re fighting yourself.” Rey reaches out her hand, asking for one of hers.

Kaydel obliges giving her right hand to her sister. “What do I do? Why won’t it stop?”

“Omega,” she purrs. “Let go.”

Kaydel just looks at Rey, not sure of what she means. Let go? Let go of what? Kaydel frowns, assuring Rey, “Nothing is in my hands. I’m not holding anything.”

“Yes, Omega. You are. You’re fighting with yourself. You’re marking yourself...can’t you see that you’re not alone?” Rey asks her question as she thumbs over the indentations made over pulse points on her wrists. Rey raises one, pressing her soft lips down onto the craters in her skin. 

“You’ve already changed... haven’t you?” Kaydel hears Rey’s inner Alpha ask her. She nods to Rey and the rest watch on. 

Neither Ben, nor Poe like where this is going. Briefly exchanging looks between the two of them, glowering at each other as they stalk their mates. 

Rose just watches as their little shit show is just about ready to turn into a full on bloodbath. Her focus is on Kaydel, who actually needs the attention. Rey on the other hand? She scoffs, thinking Ben’s here, and usually has a handle on things so she bats the idea of a struggle away from her.

“Rose?” Rey coos, claiming to be the most mature interns of their situation, “Come by my side,” she suggests in a way that sounds more like a command. “And bring the box,” she adds.

Rose has no desire to. Instead she crosses her legs on the table out in front of her and says, “No.”

The whole room turns, gaping at the little woman that now sits the furthest from them. 

Rey’s tone drops as if she’s ready for a fight, responding to her sister as if she owned her. “What do you mean, no?” Rey rises slowly from the floor. She doesn’t catch the disgust from neither Poe or Ben. 

“I said no, and you’re going to respect that.” 

Rey’s eyelids lower to slits, ready take on her sister to regain control. The two stare at each other, unmoving. Rose still comfortably seated, while Rey looks about ready to charge. 

Rose lifts an eyebrow, pressing her luck, she’s almost positive of it, giving a command of her own. Her upper lip twitches just right to be recognizable that she’s had enough. “Sit.” The three letter word could cut glass the way it rang through the room. 

All at once she watches as Rey’s knees buckle even though she wills them not to. Rose feels as though a new energy is accompanying them in the room.

“You may be what you are, but no one has control over me, or anyone else in this room. You are not staying through her heat, IF she has one. You will not mate her. You will not tease Poe, and destroy your mate in the process. Do I make myself clear?”

The silence is deafening. Rey’s eyes are wide trying to decide if she can go through with her sister’s commands. 

“Do not forget yourself, Rey. Your hormones will pass, and so will Kaydel’s. But when they do, you will wake up alone,” Rose challenges her again. 

Rey’s eyes grow dry as she hasn’t blinked since she’s followed Rose’s instructions. She hasn’t been able to see or hear anyone else in the room. Just Rose. Her words cut her like knives, each comment more powerful than the last. 

She finally makes a sound in defiance, repeating the thought of being alone. Wasn’t the point of claiming a mate to make sure the other was well kept? At the time, all she could think of was repaying Kaydel. All she wanted was to find out what she was to another like her. But Rose was right. 

Ben looked like he was being torn apart. He sacrificed too much for her to give into these instincts. She knew this. It was odd, really, that she needed Rose’s intervention to see it. But all at once she can see Ben and the miserable wreck that he’s been all morning because of her. 

It is sobering to say the least. She watches his face turn from angry to nervously pinning her. His shirt is all wrinkled from this new nervous habit he’s been doing lately. He’s done it more and more so with each passing hour. It’s as if he has something that he wants to say to her, but doesn’t. Balling the hem, he wrings it out over and over again until it just looks like a mess of triangles left in his shirt. 

When their eyes meet, she can finally hear him. She finally sees the mess she’s pushed on to him... for what? Rey nods at Ben, agreeing to go home. This is no place for her, she thinks. 

She stares at him, purring as if she was apologizing for acting as she has, “Bring me home, Alp-h-aaaa!” 

Rey’s eyes brim with tears as she screams for her mate. 

She did not see Kaydel coming. 

There was no time to focus on her, and now she’ll pay the price. 

———

No good has come from this. 

Poe has tried to pry Kaydel off of the curve of Rey’s neck. Being that they were seated and no where in the thralls of pleasure, Kaydel finds herself latching on to Rey’s gland instead of around it. 

By some miracle, Rey hasn’t blacked out. Striking the gland is a cheep shot. Rose jumps to the scene, helping Poe remove Kaydel. There they try just about everything, until Rose flat out tells Poe to bite his girl. 

Kaydel screams, releasing the lockjaw response she applied to Rey in the first places. Her lips stretch out from her face trying to reattach themselves to cover Rey’s taken gland. She purses her lips, trying new angles with them as if she could really reach Rey’s slumping form that is just out of reach. Her teeth clench shut, and a low, unpracticed growl comes from her as a warning. 

“Rey is mine!” she screeches, “MINE!”

Rose ignores her as Kay fights everyone around her. 

It’s a horrible idea. But it’s the only one she’s got. It’s not like the First Order would hand out a drug that could be too powerful for her. Maybe it’s meant to calm the insanity. Whatever the reason she pulls the small silver box from her pocket, readying the dosage, and the balm meant to protect the injection site after the shot is given.

“Keep them separated!” Rose yells over the chaos.

Ben has no problems with this, grumbling his warning, “We’re leaving. Do not follow us.” With that he turns on his heel, pulling Rey close enough to toss her over his shoulder. She goes willingly, slumping like a bag of laundry, draped over his body as they leave through the front door.

Rose lets out a sigh, thinking to herself, ‘If they just listened to me, we wouldn’t be in this mess!’ 

“Stop complaining, Rose.” Kaydel’s voice rings in her ears.

Rose frowns, knowing her sister’s lips weren’t moving past the grunts she was using in her struggle to break free of Poe’s hold. 

“Hold her still. I have to set this in a vein,” Rose explains as Kaydel continues to thrash around. Rose had to clean her neck a few times with an alcohol pad, deciding on her forearm instead. The girl just moved too damn much to do this properly. 

Pricking her skin and reaching the vein remains a challenge. After being batted out several times, Rose sits on her chest, while Poe holds her from behind, coiled around her like a snake. She’s finally, strangely, calm... but Rose doesn’t question it. She pricks her skin for the last time, finding the vein and giving the dosage. 

“I don’t know what it’s going to do to her, Poe. But, I’m not staying. And that’s final. I just want to go back to my house and hide from all of you with my family.” Rose admits while she cleans up as she always has. Next, she applies the balm, and fixes to get off of Kay’s chest. When she does, she turns for a brief second to check on the developments of the drug. 

She’s asleep. 

Lightly snoring and all Rose can do is smile.

Good.

“Listen, Poe,” Rose claims some of his attention, while starts to pick up theirs stuff again. “I dont know what this is going to do. But in all of my research... it never once said you could claim anyone without glands.” 

Poe sighs into Kaydel’s crown anyway, thankful she’s finally calmed down. For now at least. 

“So what does that mean, exactly? I can or can’t claim her? Even though she’s mine?” he asks. 

“You can try. I mean she tried to claim Rey... and She’s actually mated. What I’m saying is, it might be what it seems. What you know in life experiences with your sisters and your own background, is not the same as what she’s going through. She might not actually need them.”

“What are you saying?”

“Poe, she tried to command my Beta, and didn’t move her mouth...isn’t that telekinesis? We’re humans, not mutants from those cartoons you guys watch. She shouldn’t be able to do that.” 

“Are you sure you aren’t just exhausted?” 

Rose glares at him.

“Just hear me out. Maybe you’re reading into her body language a little too much? Maybe you’re hearing it because she is just a little too intense right now?”

Rose considers it, nodding a little as she does. “Maybe. I just can’t help the feeling that it’s a little more than that.” 

Rose continues to pick up the room as Poe cradles Kaydel. 

“What did Kaydel say they were? What did the agency see their designation as?”

“What the?...” he pauses trying to remember the term she used.

“They’re... specialized weapons or something?”

“Yeah...” he says looking back up at Rose who has her index finger covering her mouth in thought. “What?”

“But what if they can?” She returns to her thought. “What if that’s what they meant? What if that’s why they aren’t recorded? —A myth... like you said.”

Poe’s brow furrows, “Did something else happen that you’re not telling me? Because you seem a little too set on this idea.”

Rose takes a little more time, trying to assess how she wants to break it to him that there was another incident before she came over. To her, there’s no easy way to break it to him, so she tells him. “Rey answered my thoughts...and scared the ever living shit out of me this morning.” As she explains, she watches Poe’s face change from casual concern to actual fright. 

“You mean...do you think Kay can do that too?” 

“After what they shared just before,” she shakes her head, “I wouldn’t doubt it. Rey was going back to Ben. Didn’t you see it? And Kay just bit her—just bit her— just like that... like she knew she was being left before Rey even processed the thought.”

“What do you think it means for us then?” Poe sounds concerned, sad, but certainly not trying to show it. Kay marked Rey. It happened. She didn’t chose him. 

“I’m not sure yet. I don’t know if it was because she waited so long to do this. Or if her choice was actually hers, you know... like what if she did it in desperation? What if she needs you on another level, and you didn’t call to her?”

Poe looks at Kaydel again and asks about the tests. “Can you still test us even though she’s drugged?”

“I can test you definitely... and we can try her, but I don’t know how accurate it will be.” Rose reaches for the tests she left on the table last night. “A starting place is better than nothing, right?”

Rose hand over an alcohol wipe for Poe to use and prepares his test kit for him while he thoroughly cleans off his finger. She pricks him next and he sets a drop of his blood onto the section marked, Alpha. Next he puts it into the flat container adding the solution to the test card. 

“Alright, next is Kay,” she says prepping the female test. “Clean her finger off, please, and take the sample.”

Rose wants nothing to do with touching her now. She’s already certain that she smells like Kay again, and is trying desperately to ward off the panic attack that is going along with it. She knows her mind is playing tricks on her. She knows it. There is no way Rey is behind her. There’s also no way there’s a figure high in the corner of the ceiling behind her either. That stuff isn’t real. It can’t be. 

Poe is real. Kaydel is real. She is real... that’s all that’s happening right now. Nothing else is real. Well. Maybe the furniture is. She touches it and it doesn’t react, it just sits there like furniture does. She knows there are different textures on the couch than there is on the basket on the table, and furthermore, has touched them before to know that this is true. But right now, in her panic, she can’t feel them.

She watches as Poe carefully handles Kay’s test, and looks at Rose curiously.

“You look a little pale,” his voice echoes softly around her. “Rose?”

Rose’s eyes cross trying to control her situation. It seems she’s trapped in a bubble.. or a cloud maybe? Whatever it is, it makes it hard for her to respond. 

Poe moves with Kaydel placing her on the couch. She’s fine. Passed out. Sleeping soundly... just fine to be alone for a moment so he can check on Rose. 

“Rose,” Poe says her name, patting her on the shoulder. “Hey? Are you okay?” 

She doesn’t make a sound in response to him. It has him worried, watching his family member take considerable amounts of stress over Kay’s biological abuses of power. 

Rose is able to rub her temples, and her sinuses above her eyebrows as a welcome sign of relief. But communicating is difficult.

Poe leaves towards the kitchen and returns with a glass of water and the option for the house favorite in terms of pain relief, Advil. 

“Hey,” he tries Rose again. “Have some water. I’m going to text Finn or something so he can come help you.”

Rose faintly feels herself nod to him, and accepts the glass of water. It takes her time to figure out what to do with it though, while she’s still in a trance like state. Rose can feel the thin glass in her hand. The warmth that her touch adds to it is shocking. It seems as though no matter how many times she turns it to touch the cool water beneath her fingertips, it just seems to heat up again. If that’s not irritating enough, she feels less capable to bring it to her lips with each passing moment. 

‘Nerves. It’s nerves. No one is inside my head,’ she thinks. ‘I can have the water. I can lift the glass. Nothing is hot. Nothing is cold. It just is. Rey is not right behind me, Kaydel is asleep on the couch. Everything is fine.’

“Yep. You’re fine,” Rose’s eyes widen looking at Kay’s resting form. 

“What the fuck...” Rose mutters, looking down into her glass of water expecting it to turn to wine. Wine would not make it better. Beer maybe. Actually, no. Beer would break her. As it stands right now, she fully believes that she’s going insane—alcohol of any kind would not make this better.

She feels the need to get it out. Dish what they have been dealing out to her, back to them. If they wanted mind games, she’d give them mind games.

——-

Poe returns with news. “I have good news and bad news,” he says, still looking at his phone. “Which do you want first?” 

When Rose doesn’t respond, he looks up at her rocking back and forth in the arm chair he left her in.

“What the fucking fuck is going on, Rose?” Poe asks dropping his phone in the process. 

He tries to reach out to touch her shoulder when she jumps at even that action. 

“Rose? Honey? Your sister Paige is coming. I need you to calm down.” Poe tries to calm her down. 

Rose jumps back once more, begging him not to touch her.

“What’s going on?” he asks wearily. 

“I...I... didn’t want to believe she was right there.”

“Who is right there? Right where?” Poe looks around and fins nothing. It’s not even dark out— it’s mid morning for Christ sakes. What could be so terrifying in this now offset light? 

“Rey is. Poe, I can see them.”

“Rose?” He rise to comfort his friend from a distance. “Rey is not here. Rey went home with Ben. I think you’re stressed out...”

Rose bald herself into the chair she’s in, agreeing with him. 

“What happened so far? What has you so upset that you’re acting like a child that’s imagined the boogie man.”

“Kaydel has been responding to my thoughts like we’re having a girls chat...and Rey? She’s still here.”

Poe’s eyes widen looking for Rey. She was escorted out. There is no way she’s back already. None. The girl looked lifeless. And he’s pretty sure Ben hasn’t let her out of his sights. 

“Maybe, maybe you should sleep? There’s a spare room down here you can have until Paige gets here.”

Rose wrinkles her nose in thought. “Paige? Why is Paige coming?”

“Finn said she might help better than him. Besides he’s more interested protect your son from all of this hormonal bullshit,” he frowns when he asks again, “Are you sure you saw Rey?”

“Yeah, I —she’s behind me.”

Poe looks high and low and returns her gaze to look back at Rose. Rey’s not there. Nothing is, actually. Not even the ivy plant survived their shit show earlier that morning. The pot was on the floor, and dirt still covered the rug in a looking like a Jackson Pollock painting. He rolls his eyes at himself that he even knew an artist by name and style.

“She’s not there, Rose,” he confirms again. 

He clears her throat when she doesn’t respond to his reassurance. “Hey, did you eat anything yet?”

She shakes her head.

“Can I test you?”

“Why would you need to know that I’m definitely a beta?”

“If you think you’re communicating with them, maybe it’s your —-thing....” he winces when he says it. Rose has always been the most steady of their friends. He can’t help but hope to God that she isn’t changing because Rose didn’t deserve insanity. “Maybe... just try it?”

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” Rose asks as tears start to spill down her cheeks. 

“No. I’m just. I just want to help you, Rose.”

She nods her head, turning it to the right where she saw Rey last. She isn’t there. Rose purses her lips and then blows an unsteady breath of air out from between them. 

“Just... just give me the test.”

——-

Since being home in Rey’s garage, Ben carries her first into the lobby, closing it for a week. He assumes that they’ll need that time to assess Rey’s new claim. He remembers what Dr. Ackbar said about multiple claims and what it can do to the omega’s mental development. 

It was a cheep shot to bite through the center of her gland. Ben remembers that talk with his father. The thought of it makes him groan. 

Han was never good with words. In fact, he really only learned how uncomfortable his father was with the whole idea of telling his son not to claim anyone before getting to know them outside of their heats. Every time Han said heat, he would smirk and look around the room similar to how a seven year old sneaks a curse or says “boobies,” hoping not to get caught by Leia.

It didn’t matter, he learned from school, and furthermore all of those rated R movies he used to download on his phone. Marking someone, to Ben, was his “Happily Ever After” moment that would follow him forever. But he learned that there was a distinct meaning of the bite. It wasn’t just to indent their mate’s skin. It was more intimate than that.

Marking someone ‘the right way,’ involved control on the mate-to-he’s part. They needed to be capable of holding their set pace. The needed stamina—to be able to get their mate to agree. To tell him that she wants him for life. He needed to be able to get her there, sitting atop the creating wave that would no doubt pummel them down onto each other as his knot claims her. But most importantly, he needed to press his teeth onto her skin, around, the gland itself. 

Making sure his teeth encircled her gland is of the utmost importance. The mark isn’t just a mark... it isn’t just a show of ownership, it’s more like a vow. It’s a promise between the two to be there for the other, always. It means to: guard, love and protect.

What Kaydel did? That was a mark of power. She dipped her I9 down into the center of her gland making for one hell of a mess to fix. 

The only sounds Rey can make now are whimpers. She sounds more like a basket of meowing kittens than his girl and it has him hyperventilating. Ben is trying to control himself from the panic attack that seemed to creep through his veins with every step he took to get them home. 

What if this is all she is now? The thought makes him break out into a cold sweat. What if the unwanted claim overtook his own? What if she’s unresponsive to him because of it? 

Ben fights his lips that bend downward into a frown, then into a tight line, and back down again into a deeper frown. He tries to fight his tears, but the sadness is powerful. It crashes through him. One awful wave after the next of hypothetical questions and worse—answers. 

When Ben gets back to the garage with her he doesn’t hesitate to bring them upstairs. While Nevada’s is still comfortably warm by now, being that they’re well past summer now, Ben figures, the best thing he can do for her is wrap her in the blankets they share before getting her ready to leave. 

His plan is simple: get the fuck away from Kaydel for as long as it takes to get Rey back to normal. His house should work, he thinks. The garage will be fine. They’ll just close until further notice. Who cared. 

Ben gathers everything he needs in a back pack. He dumps her entire top drawer of clothes into it remembering he still had his at home. He figures there’s no sense in packing his own. Once he has everything he thinks he needs, he zips the bag and tosses it down the side of the cat walk. Even now it’s hard to be away from her. He rushes back into their room as if he thinks she’s in trouble, but she’s not. 

Rey lays there just as he placed her. He presses his lips together as he weighs his next set of actions before taking charge. As the idea hits he lunges forward, reaching at the corners of their bed. He pulls off both the fitted and tucked sheets and roll Rey into them, encasing her in both and their blanket. Once that’s done, he hoists her over his shoulder again. 

Rey’s back to whimpering again, and he wonders if it’s his touch or his smell or if she’s being hurt every time he moves her. He’s not sure. But he’s determined to keep her safe by any means necessary.


End file.
